3
Major seminary (graduate school) professor was Eric C. Rust, an Englishman who studied science before becoming a theologian. One of his major books is Science and Faith (1967). A Festschrift for him is titled Science, Faith, and Revelation: An Approach to Christian Philosophy (1979), including a chapter by LKS.

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I know little about science; nothing I say this afternoon will be about science as such. My education and lifelong study has been in the field of Christian theology and philosophy (including the philosophy of science). Theology is primarily fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding). Philosophy is not about answering questions but rather about questioning answers.

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Currently I am working on a book (which I may never finish) provisionally titled Christian Faith and Intellectual Honesty. Both terms are of great significance to me, and it is imperative (for me) that they always be linked. One of the main appeals of freethinkers is their interest in intellectual honesty, not just believing what is traditional or comforting.

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P ASCAL S W ORDS " The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of. " There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable; those who serve God with all their heart because they know Him, and those who seek Him with all their heart because they do not know Him (194).

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P OLANYI S W ORDS Comprehension is neither an arbitrary act nor a passive experience, but a responsible act claiming universal validity. Such knowing is indeed objective in the sense of establishing contact with a hidden reality; a contact that is defined as the condition for anticipating an indeterminate range of yet unknown (and perhaps yet inconceivable) true implications. It seems reasonable to describe this fusion of the personal and the objective as Personal Knowledge.

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John F. Haught (b. 1942) is professor emeritus at Georgetown University. A long-time theology professor at Georgetown, he established the Georgetown Center for the Study of Science and Religion and was its Director for many years.

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God After Darwin (2000; 2 nd ed., 2008) Deeper than Darwin (2003) Is Nature Enough? Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science (2006) God and the New Atheism (2008) Science and Faith: A New Introduction (2012)

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Is science compatible with religious faith? Doesnt science rule out the existence of a personal God? After Darwin, can anyone honestly believe in divine providence? Do miracles really happen? Was the universe created or did it just happen? Isnt life reducible to chemistry? Is your mind anything more than your brain?

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Cant science now explain morality, and cant we be good without God? Are human beings special in the vast universe? Is there life after death? Does the universe have a purpose? And what, if anything, would it mean theologically if we eventually discover extraterrestrial life and intelligence?

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Conflict – Popularized by Andrew Dickson White in A History of the Warfare of Science and Religion in Christendom. Contrast – Roots go back at least to Albrecht Ritschl (1822-89): science is about facts, religion is about values. Convergence – Haughts emphasis.

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Basically demands a choice: either science or faith. This is the position of most Christian fundamentalists. This is the position of the new atheists, who are secular fundamentalists.

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White (1832-1918) was the co-founder and first president of Cornell U. In1869 White gave a lecture on "The Battle- Fields of Science, and this grew into two volumes completed in 1896. The first chapter is From Creation to Evolution.

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While he was Professor of Christian Theology at the University of Nottingham, Alan Richardson (1905-75) wrote The Bible in the Age of Science (1961). I have often quoted a statement made in the first chapter of that book:

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The struggle of the new scientists [in the 16 th century] against the old order was not a struggle of science against religion but the revolt of the new scientific philosophy against the old Aristotelian pseudo- scientific philosophy (p. 16).

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(P ARENTHETICAL CONSIDERATION ) G RAYLING S E XPLANATION A. C. Grayling (b. 1949) is a leader in the new atheism movement and the author of many books, including The Good Book (2012) and The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism (2013). Freeing the Mind is the third chapter in Toward the Light of Liberty (2007) Grayling advocates freeing the mind from religion and for science – but he repeatedly refers to Aristotle (see pp. 79, 82, 84, 93).

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Paine was not an atheistbut neither was he a theist. He was a deist, and many of this nations founding fathers were influenced by deism. Paines main criticism was of tradi- tional Christianity and the Bible.

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Ingersoll (1833-99) was one of the most popular public speakers and the most prominent agnostic in the 19 th century. He was greatly criticized by conservative Christians who called him Injuresoul. He is the subject of a new book by Susan Jacoby: The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought (2013)

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According to Jacoby, Ingersoll preached the gospel of science as the major source of human progress and religious superstition as its enemy (p. 79). (But among other things, science has led to the atomic bombs, massive pollution, and global warming that threatens the human race.)

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Jacoby quotes Ingersolls vision for the future: I see a world without the beggars outstretched palm, the misers stony stare, the piteous wail of want, the pallid face of crime, the livid lips of lies, the cruel eyes of scorn. I see a race without disease of flesh or brain, shapely and fair, the married harmony of form and use, and as I look life lengthens, fear dies, joy deepens, love intensifies. The world is free (168).

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Hitchens best-known book is God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007). We do not rely solely upon science and reason... but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason.

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Dawkins best-known book regarding atheism is The God Delusion (2006). He contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.

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(P ARENTHETICAL CONSIDERATION ) C LIFFORD S C REDO William K. Clifford (1845-77) essay The Ethics of Belief was first published in 1877. In it is Cliffords Credo: It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."

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(P ARENTHETICAL CONSIDERATION ) C LIFFORD S C REDO William K. Clifford (1845-77) essay The Ethics of Belief was first published in 1877. In it is Cliffords Credo: It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."

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Q UESTIONS ABOUT C LIFFORD S C REDO What constitutes evidence; who determines what is, and is not, evidence? How does one determine, or who determines, what is sufficient? Is there sufficient [scientific] evidence that Cliffords Credo is true? : It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."

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Harris best-known book is The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004). He also wrote There Is No God (And You Know It) for the 10/6/05 issue of the Huffington Post. Then on 1/2/06 he wrote Science Must Destroy Religion for the issue of the Huffington Post.

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Done to a certain extent in my book Fed Up with Fundamentalism (2007). Few Christians other than fundamentalists think that one must choose either science or faith. The conflict paradigm is outdated and superseded by a better understanding.

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Scientific Naturalism Nature is all there is and nature is enough (Rue). Science provides all the knowledge we need. There is no Creator of the physical world. There is no life after physical death. Christian Faith Nature is not enough (Haught). Science does not give all the knowledge we need. All physical existence is due to a Creator. There is a possibility of life after physical death.

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This position basically sees faith and science as co-existing peacefully in separate spheres of influence. This is the position of most Christian moderates/liberals. This is the position of many scientists.

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Some use of convergence, but mainly contrast. John Polkinghorne (b. 1930); author of Science & Theology (1998); member of Society of Ordained Scientists (mainly Anglicans) Francis Collins (b. 1950); Director of the NIH, author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (2006) Alistair McGrath (b. 1953); author of Science and Religion (1998)

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Basically sees faith and science cooperating to understand the universe more completely. As Haught writes, Convergence tries to move beyond both conflict and contrast to a richer and more nuanced perspective, one that allows ample room for an ongoing conversation between science and faith.

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Haught says that convergence makes two main points. First, scientific discoveries can expand and enrich our sense of God. And second, faiths sense of an inexhaustible meaning and truth underlying the universe provides a soft breeze that bears the sails of a scientific mind ever onward toward further discoveries.

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We humans should seek to live in accordance with that which is true and not by illusion, falsehood, or partial truth. The quest for truth must be an ongoing, lifelong pursuit. Trust the one who continues to seek truth; doubt the one who claims to have discovered truth fully.

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We humans should seek to live in accordance with that which is good, seeking that which is best for oneself, those who are nearby, and for the world as a whole. Doing that which is good always enhances the quality of life for ones self and for others.

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We humans should seek to live in appreciation of that which is beautiful and reject that which is ugly or degrading. The appreciation of beauty includes the physical world which can be seen, heard, felt and tasted, but it also includes, perhaps primarily, the mental or spiritual world which is experienced by the mind or with the heart.

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The quest for Truth, Goodness and Beauty are fully consistent with and aided by belief in God. For a person of faith, Truth, Goodness and Beauty are understood as originating with God. All manifestations of Truth, Goodness and Beauty in the world point toward God.

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Understood correctly, God is perfect truth, infinite goodness and pure beauty. Thus, the closer one is to God, the greater will be his/her apprehension of truth, implementation of goodness, and appreciation of beauty.

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Conversely, the greater ones apprehension of truth, implementation of good and appreciation of beauty, the closer he/she is to Godwhether that relationship is recognized or acknowledged or not. Thus, many skeptics/freethinkers/ agnostics/atheists are actually closer to God than many religious people.

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Science can and does help us gain knowledge about the physical world (the world of matter that can be quantified). Such knowledge is by no means insignificant. But science is of little help in the quest for Truth, Goodness or Beauty.

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Truth, Goodness and Beauty are closely related to faith. That is, religious faith can and often does lead to fuller apprehension of Truth, to deeper devotion to and realization of the Good for ones self and especially for others, and to greater appreciation of Beauty.

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This does not mean that all religion or all religious practices are necessarily beneficial in ones quest for Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Thus, it is important to see the difference between faith and religionand this talk (and Haughts book) is about science and faith, not science and religion.

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Many of you have negative opinions about religionfor good reason. Some of you have been hurt by religion and/or religious people. Some of you have found some religious teachings to be untenable, even ignorant.

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Bad experiences with some forms of religion and religious institutions have triggered negative responses, reactions that have led some (most?) of you to turn away from religion. This has further resulted in many of you self-identifying as a skeptic/freethinker/ agnostic/atheist.

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Rejection of religion or bad religious ideas and teachings has led many to place great emphasis reason and science. Perhaps it is a quest for Truth, Goodness and Beauty that has led many to renounce religion and to become a skeptic/ freethinker/agnostic/atheist.

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In order to apprehend Truth, Goodness and Beauty fully, we need the convergence of science and faith. There is no reason to choose one or the other. Properly understood they can both be affirmed without conflict.

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Praise the Source of Faith and Learning by Thomas H. Troeger (1987) May our faith redeem the blunder of believing that our thought has displaced the grounds for wonder which the ancient prophets taught. May our learning curb the error which unthinking faith can breed lest we justify some terror with an antiquated creed.

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Praise the Source of Faith and Learning by Thomas H. Troeger (1987) As two currents in a river fight each other's undertow till converging they deliver one coherent steady flow, Blend, O God, our faith and learning till they carve a single course, till they join as one, returning praise and thanks to You, their Source.

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Any question or comment is permissible. There may be questions (especially about science) that I dont know the answer to; if I dont, I will say so. Dont hesitate to ask hard questions or to make critical comments (you dont have to be polite).

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There has often been conflict between science and religion; there is far less conflict between science and faith. Why is this so? (What is the difference between religion and faith?) There was a time when science was often attacked by religion. Now it seems to be more common for religious faith to be attacked by people in the name of science. Is this so, and if so, why? Instead of conflict and criticism of the other side, can people affirming science and people affirming faith work together to rid the world of the many problems threatening the life and happiness of so many human beings?